Nicky will be speaking in Session 8. Solving problems with technology. Click here to see more.
Abstract
Family Fresh Farms grows 5ha of Mini Snack Cucumbers (Qukes®) in two 2.5 hectare glasshouses. We have a team of 85 plus people on any given day & we operate 365 days of the year. We are highly labour intensive so it’s our biggest cost. So ensuring we utilize and maximize our most expensive resource through easy, validated, precise and on-time information or data is imperative. We need to enhance and encourage peak performance at all times plus discourage and minimize any poor or wasteful performance or use of people’s time.
Yes, we have some of the latest and most expensive information technology at work at Family Fresh Farms – namely Priva FS Performance which is a Dutch platform that is focused on labour planning & management. This is connected to desktops, laptops, tablets and mobile devices. This may not be within the reach of every company – but this technology pays its way without exception year on year. We also utilise a useful maintenance app to keep on top of all recurring and current tasks. This is a great tool for auditing purposes as there is a record of servicing and maintenance of all equipment.
However, there are option for smaller businesses like Google Drive, Google Sheets, Trello, Slack, Muddy Boots, DropBox – which can extremely powerful to deliver information on-time, everytime and keep records up to date.
In this session – I am going to demonstrate – what can be done and how powerful & useful the software can be and how it can make you more efficient, profitable and give you the necessary data to make calculated and weighted decisions.
Biography
Nicky Mann is currently the WHS & Labour Manager at Family Fresh Farms, a high-performing, high-tech glasshouse business producing Qukes. Nicky is a 2014 Nuffield Farming Scholar, a 2017 Worship Company of Farmers Recipient and was Chairwoman of Protected Cropping Australia for the last 5 years. Nicky has been fortunate to travel the globe looking at intensive growing production systems, and is always looking for continuous improvement in labour efficiencies which for many horticultural businesses is their biggest cost. Using an array of different data collection methods, Nicky will share how business can make fast, accurate and cost-saving decisions seamlessly. Nicky is committed to helping the NextGen of farmers and managers to get the most out of their labour through simple and inexpensive data collection methods.